


Wreathed with Seaweed Red and Brown

by lurkingspecter



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alphynecentric, Cuddling, F/F, Fluff, Kissing, Post-Pacifist Route, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 18:26:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6162596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lurkingspecter/pseuds/lurkingspecter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Undyne and Alphys run into an unexpected problem at the beach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wreathed with Seaweed Red and Brown

**Author's Note:**

> This is set directly after that one scene in the pacifist ending credits.

As Alphys sat with Undyne at the beach, the warmth in her scales made her feel blissfully content and drowsy, so that keeping her eyes open was a struggle. In no time, she had curled up on their shared blanket and fallen asleep.

"Hey Alphys, I need to get up."

Alphys opened her eyes reluctantly and looked up at Undyne's patient, smiling face. With a blush she realized that her head had ended up in Undyne's lap, not that Undyne seemed to mind—she had one hand resting comfortably on Alphys's back and in her other was a volume of manga.

"S-sorry!" Alphys said, sitting up.

"It's fine, I just decided that it was time for me to finally get in the ocean."

Undyne's eye eagerly scanned the expanse of  waves before them as she stood and stretched. She had taken off her eye patch already, revealing a mess of scars that sealed that eye shut.  

"Want to come with me?"

"O-of course."

Undyne helped her up and they walked to the edge of the sand, where the foamy water teasingly skimmed over their feet.

"Um, I guess I should tell you that I don't a-actually know how to swim."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I've never even tried doing it."

"Hmm. Well, you should be safe here if you just wade in up to your waist."

Alphys took a few steps forward, until the water was up to the middle of her calves, and then stopped, looking back at Undyne sheepishly.

"What if there are sharks?"

"Then I'll punch 'em all until they leave us alone!"

After a few more steps she stopped again and shrugged apologetically.

"Alright, I'll just swim around a bit first and scare them all off, okay? Then you can get in if you still feel like it. No mean fishes are gonna stop my girlfriend from having a good time!"

Alphys giggled as Undyne unleashed a battle cry, ran in, and plunged under the waves. At first she was able to track her progress by ripples, splashes, and the occasional dazzling flash of a scaled arm, but eventually the surface of the water became calm, and she lost track of where she was. After wading in a bit deeper she still couldn't see anything.

"Undyne, I think that you probably shouldn't swim out any farther than that," she called. "Oh, I guess you can't hear me since you're underwater. Dang it."

She glanced at the distant figure of the lifeguard, perched on his tall chair. Before now it had seemed best to avoid him since they didn't want to draw attention to the fact that Undyne had, ahem, knocked a sizable chuck out of the rock wall bordering the beach. If she needed help, though...

"Uhh, Alphys!"

Alphys looked back at the ocean. Undyne was far away, but steadily approaching the shore. Eventually she stopped, just deep enough to still be treading water, and waved.

"Hey! You were gone so long that I thought you had drowned or something!"

"No, silly. I can breathe underwater, remember?"

"Oh. Right."

"Seriously though, I'm sorry that I worried you."

"It's alright. Just warn me next time you decide to do that, okay?"

A minute passed. Undyne hadn't moved and was wearing a rigid, anxious grin.

"Um, aren't you going to come back now?"

"Nope. There's a, uh, interesting situation that I'm currently dealing with. It seems that I've...I've grown a _tail_."

Alphys's disbelieving snicker was cut short by Undyne's glare.

"A tail? You mean a tail like my tail?"

"No. It's some kind of frickin' mermaid tail. My legs are gone; they just morphed into this _thing_ after I had been swimming around for a minute."

"Well, maybe if you come back on land then you'll get them back. That's how it's supposed to work, right?"

"Yeah, I'd thought of that, but I lost my swim trunks when the tail grew and I dunno where they are now."

"Then I'll just wrap a towel around you when you come out. I'm s-sure it'll be fine!"

"Eh, okay. We'll try that then."

When she reached the shore Undyne flopped down on her belly, unable to stand, her tail thrashing around behind her as she struggled to avoid face-planting in the sand. It looked as if she were determined to crawl up the beach to where Alphys was shaking out the towel, but she rushed to her before she could get very far. Undyne's breathing was heavy, panicked, and she didn't calm down until Alphys knelt and wrapped her arms around her, murmuring words of encouragement.

"I know this is scary but it's gonna be okay. Shhh, just stay still, I'm right here and I'm not gonna leave."

Alphys was close enough to feel her rapid pulse. Once it had slowed down, and Undyne's thrashing had stopped, her tail split neatly down the middle and her legs returned.

" _Ugh_. That is definitely the weirdest thing I have ever felt."

After making sure that the towel was securely tied around her waist, Undyne stood up, Alphys supporting her. A few nearby humans had seen Undyne change and were staring at them in shock, but they went about their business when Undyne glowered at them.

"Well, this day was a bust," she sighed, scraping away the wet hair that clung to her face. "Let's head back to the hotel."

 

Undyne was the first to shower when they got back to their room, being eager to rid her body of the salty water that had caused all of this. Alphys listened over the hiss of running water, concerned that Undyne's legs might fail her as they had several times during their walk back, but she didn't hear any thuds or cursing. When she had returned from her own shower she found Undyne brooding on the balcony, staring in the direction of the ocean. A thin strip of the beach was just visible if you tilted your head right and looked between two high-rise condos.

"You can smell it," Undyne said when Alphys joined her at the railing. "You can smell it everywhere in this town, no matter how far away you are."

"Yeah."

They were silent for a minute, Alphys watching Undyne, Undyne squinting at that one tiny sliver of the sea.

 "Sorry, I'm just so...confused. Not an emotion that I feel too often." Undyne laughed uneasily. "You know me—always sure of myself."

With a heavy sigh she slumped against the railing and hid her face in her arms. Alphys clicked her nails against the metal bar anxiously, frowning, wondering how in the world you were supposed to comfort someone in this situation.

"H-Hey, we've still got daylight left. How about we do something that doesn't have anything to do with the ocean? I think that I saw an arcade around the corner."

Undyne lifted her head, and the tension that had been creasing her forehead eased a little.

"That's an awesome idea. Owning some nerds at DDR is just what I need right now."

 

That night they lay curled up in bed, Undyne's arms around Alphys, the soft light of the TV the only thing illuminating the room. Alphys thought that Undyne must be asleep, since she was quiet and still, and she was beginning to nod off as well.

"What if there are others out there?" Undyne whispered suddenly.

"Huh?"

"I mean, what if I'm not the only"—her face was lying against Alphys's neck, so she could feel her grimace—" _mermaid_ left? Maybe some of them went into hiding when the war with humans turned ugly."

Alphys turned to face her. Undyne's eye was closed, but she sighed and opened it when Alphys placed a hand against her face.

"Undyne, I'm sorry, but I think that if there were any left the humans would have found them by now. They would have told us about that at the peace talks."

"Well, what if they're just really rare? The humans can't have found everything down there. The ocean is, to put it mildly, frickin' huge. I've seen pictures of all the weird fish they've found in the deepest parts. Don't tell me that seeing an anglerfish for the first time didn't expand your imagination a little."

Alphys chuckled.

"Okay, you're right about the anglerfish. And it wouldn't hurt to do some research about mermaids; who knows what might turn up? Maybe something will resonate with you."

"Yeah. I gotta at least try to find them, Alphys. Now that I think that it could be possible, there's no way that I could forget about it."

Even in this low light Alphys could see that familiar determined blaze in her eye.

"I understand. We can start researching tomorrow, if you want to. It might involve some _nerd stuff_ , though."

This was a well-worn joke between them, although lately Undyne had become interested in some nerdy things as well. It turned out that human history, while not as cool as she had been led to believe, could still be pretty interesting.

"I think that I can tolerate nerd stuff, just this once."

Undyne kissed Alphys on the forehead and laughed when she got predictability flustered.

"H-hey, no fair!"

Alphys kissed her on the neck and Undyne went rigid. At first she thought that she had done something wrong, but then she noticed the dark blue tingeing her ears—Undyne was just as nervous as she was. They'd been taking things slow in the area of kissing and other things that made Alphys sweat when she thought about them.

"Y-you think this is some kind of kissing competition?" Undyne said. "Well, I kissed you twice today, so I win! Ha!"

Alphys placed a hand over her face to smother her giggles. Undyne huffed softly as she felt her shake with the silent laughter.

"Ah, you know what, I've changed my mind. You win. Ten out of ten, would receive that kiss again."

Soon Undyne was snoring. Alphys carefully extricated herself from her embrace and tugged her laptop out of her suitcase. After opening up her email she scrolled through the list of new contacts that she had made since coming to the surface. Talking to people was still hard, but the humans were so interested in her work that they didn't mind that her handshakes were a little sweaty or that she stammered when trying to explain things. Most of those who she had met were engineers, some physicists, but a few biologists were interested in her work concerning the amalgamates. Talking about that part of her life was painful, but she'd promised herself that she would be open about it from now on, and it got a little easier each time that she discussed it.

Anyway, one of these biologists had mentioned that they studied marine life, so that seemed like a good place to start. Alphys wrote them an email, spent a few minutes worrying over her wording, and then sent it. Maybe they would laugh off her question, but she thought that they would be willing to humor her.

She crawled back into bed and snuggled up to Undyne, enjoying her new favorite sound—scales rasping softly against scales.


End file.
